Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Only the Weak ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Only the Weak

By Karete-chan

Chapter 2:

The months wore on. The light tan garments that had been too large to begin with hung loosely on them now. They were by no means starving but the backbreaking work and strange food was, as one girl put it during a bout of hysteria: `the best weight loss program in the universe'.

Whenever they could they took the time to listen to the stories of the old man who they had met on their first day. They now knew him as Petak. He had been there the longest and was the eldest of any of the current slaves. Many did not like him; they believed that someone who had survived this long within Frieza's service must have some means of providing themselves with privileges, most likely through being a snitch. The girls did not believe this solely for the fact that he had stuck out his neck for them. But they could see how the others would come to that conclusion. Petak was the person in charge of delegating the duties and had to report every so often to the lower ranked guards. That and he had a room to himself.

On days that they didn't feel so weary they would seat themselves behind the half-dozen or so slave children and just listen to him talk. They did not always hear what he said but the sound was soothing. On days that they were prepared to sit up and pay attention he refrained from telling mere stories and talked instead about things or certain people aboard the ship. None of it was pleasant and some of the children would become more distressed than usual. Only once had he stopped and spoken to them harshly. Saying that they must listen if they were to live this life. Inside the girls cringed, knowing somehow that he only spoke of these things for their benefit.

~*~*~*~

"Hey TwoBlue!" At the shout a slave at the end of the line of scrubbers lifted her head. "Get over here!" Slowly the girl got up and shuffled over. She stopped before the two guards, her head bowed and eyes on the floor as was proper.

"What the hell is this?" the second guard asked. Taking in her dirt smeared clothes and face.

"This," replied the other guard, poking the girl hard in the shoulder, "is TwoBlue. She's gonna deliver our message for us." He reached down and unhooked a small package from the waist of his armor, then dangled it in front of her face. "Now you listen," he said slowly and loudly. "You take this package and go up to the mess hall, the mess hall got it? Then you stand and you wait for it to be collected, do not sit down do not wander. You come straight back when it's done. Understand?" She nodded slowly, not looking at him, waited for him to hand her the parcel then shuffled off down the corridor. They watched her go.

"Something wrong with her head?" the second asked. "That took you a month to say."

"Dunno. That's how these other wretches speak to her. Suppose she's slow or somethin'."

"Weird name."

"Yeah. Don't think it's real. Probably didn't want anyone to know what the real name of somethin' so ugly was. That's why I chose her."

"Speaks no evil huh?"

"Hell, she don't speak at all."

TwoBlue went slowly. In all likelihood this was dangerous so she was in no hurry to get there. It was just her luck that the idiots on this ship took silence for stupidity. Of course, being covered in dirt didn't help but then she didn't really want it to. If people thought she was disgusting and stupid then they'd leave her alone. She entered the corridor outside the mess hall. There was no one there. Sighing she went to the door and bowed her head as it opened. It was quiet and after a second she looked up, only to find someone staring at her.

She was so startled that she forgot to look away, until he frowned. Her eyes found the floor and she stood, waiting for him to punish her.

"Hmph. You bloody slaves get uglier every year. Have ya got the package?" She nodded. "Then get over here." She shuffled over.

"Looks just your type moptop." Another voice came from the side. Unable to help herself she glanced over.

"Shut yer mouth monkey or I'll beat ya again twice as hard." The man on the floor was huge by any standards. His black hair, had he been standing, would have fallen past his knees and what looked like a furry belt was wrapped around his waist. When he saw her looking at him he grinned ferally at her, his bloodied face showing bright white teeth and what she thought were fangs. She looked away. The man in front of her must be strong to have beaten him. From her short glimpse the one called Moptop had hardly been any taller than herself. "'Sides," he was saying. "I don't need to go looking for sheilas. They find their own way."

"What made you think I thought that it was a girl?"

Moptop growled and a muffled thump came from the ground. Then she felt him grab her chin and force her face upward. He was frowning and she thought it inanely stupid of herself to notice that his eyes were a dark green colour and in stark contrast to his red skin and white hair.

"Ugh. The monkey was right. You are a girl." Jeice sneered at her and watched as the fear in her blue eyes doubled. Smirking her pushed her away and she staggered back a few steps; it was only reflex that allowed her to catch the bag he threw to her. "Get out of here. Next time I won't be so lenient if you look at me." She turned and scurried away and as the door hissed closed behind her she heard him mutter: "Bloody hell. Now I have to get new gloves."

~*~*~*~

One evening, or at least the break that the girls had come to think of as evening, Petak came limping back into the common room of the slaves' quarters. The girls were huddled quietly in a corner, being ignored once again. They watched him slowly hobble across the room and collapse into a broken old chair. His eyes were clenched in pain as he lent over and began rubbing the lower half of his leg. The four pairs of quiet eyes watched him for a while before they turned back to their whispered conversation, which fell into silence and hand signals when anyone passed.

The quietest of the four continued to watch him and after a moment she stood and walked over slowly to seat herself at Petak's feet. The other three watched them with curiosity. What was she doing? The old man gazed down at her a sad look on his wrinkled face, almost in a way a father would gaze at a daughter he had lost. She reached out one dirt-smeared hand and gently pushed his hands away from his leg. He frowned at her but to his surprise she gave him a small smile, which was only a momentary lifting of the corners of her mouth, and began to massage his tired leg with firm but gentle fingers. He watched her as she worked and soon the pain in his leg lessened to a dull ache.

"Why do you help me child?" he asked after a while. He fingers paused for a fraction but she just shrugged her shoulders and didn't look at him. "I had a daughter once. She was as old as you when I last saw her." He paused. "You are the one they call ThreeBrown?" Still the girl said nothing. "You are scared to be on this ship, little ThreeBrown?" She nodded slowly, still not looking at him. "It is good to be afraid, it will make you cautious but you should not let it grow into terror as many of those here do." She nodded again. He was silent for a while then asked: "Would you like to ask me a question?" The question startled her. She looked up at him and he saw her brown eyes flick to her friends. "If they want to know you can call them over." She looked up at him gratefully and made small beckoning movements with her hand. The other three soon joined them.

"What was it you wanted to know?" The four girls looked at each other then to the one called ThreeBrown. She pointed to Petak's head. "About me? You want to know about me?" The corners of her mouth lifted slightly again but she shook her head and moved closer to him; pointing at his neck and the plain white ring he wore around it. "You want to know about my collar?" She nodded eagerly. "It is a ki damper. Have you never seen one before?" They shook their heads. "Well you know what ki is." They shook their heads; all but the one called, he thought, FourGrey. The other three stared at her. "Why don't you explain to your friends?" he said smiling gently at her. Slowly she placed both hands over her chest then made a strong arm pose. He chuckled at the bewildered looks on her friend's faces. "Yes, that's right. It is your inner strength. Your energy. A ki damper prevents you from using it. On my planet I was considered a strong warrior but compared to those on this ship I am nothing. To you I would be just as frightening. Your species has such a low ki, it not that surprising that most of you have not heard of it." He glanced at ThreeBrown.

She was watching him, a calculating look on her dirt-streaked face. Suddenly she sat up straighter and pointed at him then herself and her friends. He looked confused so she tried again. She pointed at him again then herself and cupped her hands in front of her chest. His brow wrinkled. "You want me to teach you to use your ki?" She gave the same fleeting smile and nodded. He shook his head. "It is too dangerous. If anyone ever found out…" He paused. "But it has been so long since I have had a student." His eyes were wistful and as he looked into their pleading faces he knew he couldn't refuse. "It would keep you safer, if you were able to defend yourselves," he mused, trying to make it look as if they hadn't walked all over him. They nodded eagerly, their eyes shining brightly from their grubby faces and had to fight the urge to smile at them.

Despite what the other slaves thought of these four he could see that there was intelligence behind those sad eyes. That and the fact that they had caught on so quickly to the workings of the ship showed that they had the strength needed to survive. He sighed. "If you are caught you are not to mention me." They nodded and later, while the other slaves slept, four human girls had their first instruction in the manipulation of ki.

~*~*~*~

As TwoBlue exited their quarters she almost tipped her basin of bloodied water on the floor as ThreeBrown walked into her. Glancing up and down the corridor she quickly hissed. "Watch it!"

"Sorry," ThreeBrown muttered. "I have to run a message. How is she?" FourGrey had been late to duty the day previously and had been beaten.

"Alive. If I had bandages to change the ones she's got, she'd be better."

ThreeBrown looked at the basin, her face pale. "Is that all from her?"

"Yeah." TwoBlue would have said more but another slave came along. ThreeBrown gave her a small wave and moved off.

ThreeBrown went as quickly as her deceptive shuffling gait would allow her down to engineering. The place was stuffy and she began wheezing long before she left. Finding her way back up had been the hard part. She knew that she was running behind schedule and in her panic must have made a wrong turn. She jumped at every little sound and constantly looked over her shoulder. TwoBlue had told them of her encounter in the mess hall and they figured between them that the two must have been Jeice, a member of the Ginyu Force and Radditz, a Saiya-jin, one of the most ruthless creatures in the universe. She was almost back to the slave's quarters when a hand reached out and roughly grabbed her wrist.

"Hello filthy." A grating voice said in her ear and the smell of alcohol wafted over her to the point that it almost made her vomit. The drunk dragged her backwards into a room, her heart thudding loudly in her chest. "I'm going to have some fun with you." She madly tried to twist out of his grip but he was too strong even with her month of training. His scouter blipped. "Hey, you shouldn't be able to do that." He hiccupped and sloppily whacked her across the face but it was still hard enough to leave a bruise. "Have to put you down now." He was almost singing the words.

She was dragged through into another room and immediately recognized it to be the poolroom where some of the stronger warriors came to train and hone their underwater techniques. She looked fearfully up at the soldier. He grinned broadly down at her. "Don't like water do you?" She glanced down at the deep pool. He was going to throw her in? What an idiot, he thought she couldn't swim. Still she didn't want to get wet; it might wash some of the dirt away. He grabbed her neck roughly and held her out over the water as her hands clawed at the fingers pressed into her throat. "We don't need ugly things like you on this ship anyway. Fri*hic*eza might give me a promotion for this."

ThreeBrown gasped as she fell and hit the surface. The cold water immediately soaked through her clothes, the heavily spun material dragging her down. She struck out for the surface but felt a pressure on her shoulder. The bastard was holding her down! She struggled wildly, and then in a flash of panic induced inspiration she summoned all her strength, grabbed his arm and used his off balanced position to pull him into the water with her. He let out a surprised yelp as he fell and his grip on her shoulder loosened. She immediately struck out into the water, swimming as fast as she could to get away from him.

Surfacing for breath she heard him struggling in the water, calling for help at the top of his lungs. Strangely enough for her she felt no remorse as the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. So, the bastard couldn't swim. Well she wasn't about to go back and help him. Diving back under to drown out his cries she swam towards the far edge as quickly as she could. If she was found here…she shuddered and not from the coolness of the water. When she resurfaced his pathetic cries had stopped and she did not turn to see what had become of him. She grasped the edge of the pool, breathing heavily and shivering she wearily hoisted herself out. Swimming took muscles she had not used in a long time.

Standing somewhat shakily she began to wring the water from her clothes. She couldn't leave a trail. The now dirty water dripped on to the floor and though the dirt did not wash completely off, the rivulets that dripped down her face and hands left light trails behind them, leaving her `tan' with stripes. More strands of hair had come loose from her bun and stuck to her face and neck.

"What are you doing?"